


The Tiger and the Cobra

by draconicflyer



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: BAMF Tony, Child Abuse, Child Experimentation, His Dark Materials crossover, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-12-18
Updated: 2015-01-07
Packaged: 2018-01-05 01:43:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1088121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/draconicflyer/pseuds/draconicflyer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony Stark wasn't alone through his awful childhood. He had his daemon Kasimira, his sister Lena, and her daemon Athanasius. Together the four of them could handle anything.  Even living with the Avengers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Kitten and the Snakelet

**Author's Note:**

> Yo! I have a lot of backstory built into this fic so if you have any questions I probably have some answers. Post a comment or send me a message and I'll get back to you. This is my first published fic so I'm not sure what my update schedule will be but I have a lot of the story planned. A minor note, in my version of the His Dark Materials part of the crossover the super soldier serum given to Steve also stretched the bond between him and his daemon allowing them to be apart from each other.

In 1942 Captain America and his daemon were lost in a plane crash. A year later he was legally declared dead and the army stopped all search efforts. That same year Howard Stark began to contemplate his own mortality. He decided that he had too much to offer the world for his time on it to ever end and he began looking for a way to defy death. The most obvious method was to recreate the super soldier serum. There was no proof that the serum prevented aging but it was likely and even if it couldn’t it would be a good start.   
With that in mind Howard made sure to collect all of Dr. Erskine’s notes and set up a private organization to continue the search for Captain Rodgers. Howard himself searches for a time before leaving it to others in order to begin his own efforts to recreate the serum.

By 1969 Howard and his daemon Jehannaz had made great strides in recreating Erskine’s formula and completed several successful animal trials. He was ready to begin human testing but was having difficulty deciding on a test subject. He didn’t want some nobody to be given the same powers as Captain America or end up creating another Red Skull. Then Maria announced she was pregnant and Howard had his solution. He was also curious to see how the serum might affect a fetus during development so he asked his wife to participate in one of his experiments. Maria was happy to do so after a brief assurance that it wouldn’t harm the baby. Anthony Edward Stark was born in March of 1970.

The experiment was an even greater success than Howard had anticipated. Anthony was a remarkable subject. He was both like and unlike Captain America. He was stronger than average but exhibits no outward excess of muscle tissue. Instead his cells seemed to be more efficient. In addition to enhanced strength there were subtle differences in his skeletal structure and joints making him more flexible, he even had an additional vertebra in his spine. His mental abilities were also far above those of his age group. He began speaking after 6 months and quickly moved on to problem solving. His healing capacity was also exceptional, cuts and bruises heal approximately 5 times faster than an average human.

In 1972 Howard looks for another subject. As remarkable as this experiment had been Howard can’t depend on a single test subject. This time Howard wants more control and feedback during fetal development so he found a woman who recently fell on hard times and got her to agree to the experiment in exchange for an obscene amount of money. She quickly became pregnant and Howard was able to learn even more from this subject by monitoring the fetus’s growth. He was pleased when the fetus developed into a female, broader test group, and in short order the girl was born. The woman took her leave and Howard delivered the girl into Jarvis’s care for when he didn’t need her for experiments. Howard knew that nothing Jarvis said against him would be taken seriously. Howard and the weapons he designs were too valuable. Jarvis accepted his new charge and named her Lena.

In 1983 Howard contemplated the next phase of testing. Tony and Lena were 13 and 10 respectively. The only outward sign of the serum was the additional vertebra and the slight difference in the way they move. Their movements were more fluid and balanced than anyone Howard had observed. The only time he had seen them stumble was after particularly intensive testing. A truly observant person could note the complete lack of scaring. Nothing Howard has done has left permanent injury. Injuries that would never heal fully in a regular person, nerve damage and loss of fingers, healed swiftly and left no sign of the injury ever occurring. Most promising of all sample cells forced into rapid growth showed no sign of failure due to age. The only flaw in the testing had been from the subjects themselves. Both Tony and Lena had at various points objected to testing. Howard found threatening their daemons to be the optimal way to ensure cooperation. No further objections had been made. Kasimira and Athanasius, their daemons, showed increased mental aptitude in correlation to Tony and Lena but exhibit no enhanced physical capabilities. As with Captain America and his Adelaide the serum appeared to causes the bond to be stretched.   
Howard was ready to begin testing adults but returned to his initial challenge of how to decide upon a test subject. Eventually Howard decided to combine testing on adults with testing the limits of the serums healing capabilities. He had deliberately avoided many test that he suspected would cause death regardless of the serum not wanting to risk his only two test subjects. But if he selected test subjects that wouldn’t be missed then he could run those tests and eliminate the worry about what to do with the subjects after testing. Howard briefly considered terminating Tony and Lena now that he had all the data he required but decided against it. Tony was a known figure and if he disappeared there would be questions. No one apart from Tony and Jarvis knew about Lena but Tony was remarkably attached to the girl and would likely raise a fuss if she was destroyed. Besides Howard might think of new tests and acquiring another fetal injected subject would be tedious.

Over the next five years Howard selected and acquired 20 test subjects in varying states of health and age. His results were phenomenal. Four subjects died shortly after injection before Howard determined the necessary dosage. Apparently fetuses were able to absorb more of the serum then fully formed adults, Howard considered running tests on children but the serum was meant for him and he was far from a child. After that all subjects showed marked improvement in health and an increase in physical and mental abilities. The elderly subjects de-aged at a steady rate until they reached an apparent age of mid-twenties. Howard kept the daemons of all the test subjects in a series of cages to maintain control over the subjects. All subjects developed a stretched bond after injection.

Tony attended MIT during these years while Lena remained at the Stark Mansion where Howard conducted his test. Howard had designed no further test for them but Tony would be a valuable asset in the Stark Industries research and development department and Lena had become a valuable lab assistant. She was adept at setting up and conducting tests which allowed Howard to observe more closely, Howard also had her clean up the lab and dispose of the subjects after testing. 

In 1987 Tony graduated from MIT with honors and returned home, Lena was overjoyed to see him. Howard was satisfied with the results of his trials and was ready to inject himself. He instructed Lena to set up the lab for the procedure to be conducted the next day. Howard and his wife needed to make an appearance at a Gala that evening. 

The next day the headlines told of the tragic deaths of Howard and Maria Stark. Reports indicated there was a slight defect with the brake system but no evidence of foul play.

Tony attended the funeral with his daemon Kasimira who had settled as a Maltese Tiger when Tony was 14. They stand next to Obadiah Stane, his new legal guardian and the CEO of Stark Industries until Tony’s twenty first birthday. Edwin Jarvis brought home and eventually adopted an orphan girl and her black snake daemon now registered as Lena Jarvis and Athanasius.


	2. A Cobra is Born

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Takes place after the Stark's funeral but before Jarvis adopts Lena.

Lena had never seen so many people in her life. There were hundreds of them all milling about and walking to and fro. And the buildings! They were everywhere and seemed to go up for miles. She kept a hand on Athanasius who was wrapped around her neck and chest. Tony and Kasimira had told them of cities but Lena and Athanasius had never been allowed off the manor grounds. Athanasius hissed and buried his head in Lena’s black hair. The car ride through New York City was overwhelming for both of them.  


Jarvis was driving them to pick up Tony and Kasimira from the Stark Industries building. Mr. Stane had come by that morning saying Tony needed to come in and sign some papers. Lena felt lost and afraid in this strange new environment without her big brother.  


“It will be alright young ones” Perseveron, Jarvis’s barn swallow daemon, drew Lena’s attention away from the city. “I know it’s a lot but we are all here to help you. Jarvis, Tony, Kasimira, and I are all here for you.”  


Lena stroked Athanasius’s head drawing comfort from the contact. She had been surprised when he settled as a snake, a Philippine Cobra no less. Lena didn’t feel like a cobra, all her life she had felt like a mouse. Meekly doing as Howard had bid.  


Oh how she had hated the man. Her childhood had been filled with pain and she knew more about her own healing abilities through firsthand experience than anyone should. The worst though had been when Howard had moved on to adult subjects. Lena had been the one made to conduct the experiments that always ended in death. Lena had killed on command again and again. Even Howard’s death had been a great deal of her doing and by then she could find nothing in herself that flinched at another murder, not one so well deserved anyway. She had known when Howard began discussing injecting himself with the serum that he had to be stopped. After all if Howard successfully dosed himself with the serum and became immortal he wouldn’t need her and Tony anymore.  


Tony had come home and together they had planned. Tony knew about the Gala; his mother had made him promise to behave himself while she and Howard were gone since Jarvis was sick. Lena knew which car Howard would want to drive, a recent purchase that he had talked about showing off. That evening Lena kept Howard busy in the lab, in the guise of wanting to be sure she set up everything correctly, while Tony put his knowledge of cars to good use. They had sat up together that night, it hadn’t taken long for the police to phone.  


A hand clasped her shoulder causing Lena to startle. Turning she saw Jarvis smiling at her, they had arrived. She smiled back. Stepping out of the car Lena faced the city and let go of her fear. It was a new day and the start of a new life. She would learn, adapt, and become the cobra Athanasius proclaimed her to be.


	3. A Kitten Walks into a Nursery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This takes place before the previous chapter just after Lena was born.

The first time Tony saw Lena he was 3 years old. He had just completed his daily regimen of experiments testing his physical fitness, mental ability, and healing factor. Howard had released him from the lab into the care of the butler Edwin Jarvis who looked after Kasimira during the day. Kasimira, who had taken the form of a ferret, climbed up Tony’s clothes and wrapped herself around his neck. Edwin brought Tony to the nursery but instead of being empty as Tony expected there was a baby in Tony’s old crib.

“Edwin, who is this?” Tony’s language skills were far beyond those of a normal child his age.

“This is your new sister” Jarvis picked up the sleeping infant and knelt down to show her to Tony. Kasimira leaned over to sniff the girl.

“Sister?” Tony questioned, not familiar with the word. Kasimira leaped up to the crib to see the girl’s daemon, he was curled up in the form of a kitten. She gave the new daemon a few sniffs then licked his nose. Perseveron watched from where he was perched on the railing.

“Yes, she has the same father as you” Edwin explained. “You are her older brother and that means you have to help me take care of her.”

“My sister” Tony smiled as he reached out a tiny hand to touch her face and her fuzzy black hair. “What is her name?”

“I thought we could call her Lena” Edwin smiled to see Tony look so happy. “It means light.”

Tony stared at Edwin for a moment before returning his attention to his sister. “Lena. My sister … My light.”

Lena woke from her nap and wriggled a little. Tony smiled at her antics before yawning.

“Let’s get you to bed young master” Edwin stood and returned Lena to her crib before helping Tony prepare for bed.

That night as Tony and Kasimira curled up together they wondered what having a sister would be like.

“What do you think her daemon’s name is” Kasimira whispered after Jarvis and Perseveron had left.

“I don’t know. Do you think they will be nice?” Tony replied in the same hushed tone.

“She is your sister which I guess makes her daemon my brother” Kasimira looked at her human. “Jarvis always says that family is supposed to love each other”

“Father and Jehannaz don’t love us” Tony’s voice was impossibly soft as he spoke those words.

“Maybe … Maybe sisters and brothers are different than fathers. Maybe if we love them then they will love us back. We can try at least” Kasimira was tired of being alone. They loved Edwin and Perseveron but it wasn’t enough.

“We will try!” Tony agreed.

**Author's Note:**

> I do love comments so ask a questions, offer advice or an opinion. Go ahead it will make my day.


End file.
